Ok, I’m ready to lay this to rest. It doesn’t seem to generate much interest, so here is my final post about my review of http://www.bookofmormongeography.info
I thought I’d post the more egregious errors here, instead of going section by section as I had originally intended to do. I just checked the site, and got a chuckle out of this little exchange:
I need a change of pace, so I thought I’d do a little pop culture for a post.
My wife and I went to see the new Indy movie the Friday morning after it came out. I’m a big Indy fan. I liked the movie, but it wasn’t as good as #1 or #3, but better than #2.
Anyway, I don’t want any plot spoilers, and I don’t think this is, so if you haven’t seen the movie, you may want to stop reading here, but if you don’t care, read on.
Here is Part 4 of a review of http://www.bookofmormongeography.info
“Amazing” is a new section, which didn’t exist a few months ago when I began researching this theory. The author tries to make the Book of Mormon match NY geography, instead of first coming up with an internal model, and seeing if NY fits. He makes the following claim:
This is part 3 of a review of http://www.bookofmormongeography.info/
The author has a Welcome section which we reviewed earlier, and this is the second section (called Errors), detailing what the author finds as Errors many other have made. (I am going to refer to the author as “he” from now on–I’m not sure if the author is a he or she, and he so far prefers to stay anonymous, except has posted here as BOMC.)
This section has both parts that I agree with, and parts I disagree with. Let me quote: Continue Reading »
My previous post comments had drifted off topic, so I thought I’d post a new topic along those lines.
Gnosticism means “secret knowledge.” This is not to be confused with the term Agnostic, which means “without knowledge.” Typically, Agnostic people are without knowledge of God. Some are atheists, but not all. Agnostics typically are ambivalent about whether God exists or not.
Gnostics, on the other hand, date from the time of Christ. Gnostic should probably be considered a generic term, such as Protestant. For example, while Baptists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, etc. are all considered “protestant”, they certainly don’t all believe exactly the same. Protestant is a term to group nearly all “non-Catholic” groups together. In essence, these groups are “protesting” against some of the beliefs of the Catholic church.
Here’s part 2 of my review of the website http://www.bookofmormongeography.info/. I thought I’d go over the “Welcome” section.
First of all, there is a very interesting perspective, mentioned in bold on the website. **The doctrine of the Mormon Church has no basis in The Book of Mormon, and the two should be held separate.**
That got my attention.
I’m certainly no DNA expert.
But here’s some thoughts anyway. First of all, finding any sort of Hebrew DNA anywhere in the Americas certainly gives critics of the Book of Mormon pause, as it directly refutes some of their arguments. But how important is this discovery?
Let’s talk about the name Cohen first. As I learned from Quest for the Lost Tribes, the name Cohen represents the Tribe of Levi. This is the priesthood tribe. As we go back to the 12 Tribes of Israel, remember that the Tribe of Levi was given no land of inheritance, but was instead granted the priesthood to administer among the other tribes.
| Ok, I’m going quote exactly from the Nephi Project Newsletter.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Nephi Project Newsletter 12 May 2008 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hebrew DNA found in American Indian populations in South America? Just as George is preparing for his Book of Mormon research expedition to Peru and Bolivia, Scott R. Woodward, executive director of the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation has announced that a DNA marker called “Cohen modal haplotype” has been found in native people in Columbia, Brazil and Bolivia. Why is this important? Although Woodward warns about using DNA as evidence for or against the Book of Mormon, it is the first time a Hebrew specific DNA marker has been discovered among native people in the New World. We encourage you to learn more about this discovery at: http://mormontimes.com/DB_index.php?id=1064 Keep Exploring, George Potter & Timothy Sedor |
Ok, for those who follow my blog (both of you 🙂 ), you’ll notice that I have an interest in Book of Mormon Geography. While I am open to many theories, so far the only one that has generated any interest is a theory placing the Book of Mormon lands in the New York area. The website is found at http://www.bookofmormongeography.info/, and is self-titled, “True Book of Mormon Geography.”
My first disclaimers are that I am certainly no expert on the subject of Book of Mormon geography, so I may come to good or bad conclusions. I will say that I study the subject more than the average person, and I am familiar with the various theories. We discussed them here, if you would like to review them.
I attended a fireside Sunday night with Wilfred Griggs, Assoc Professor from BYU. His specialty is Egyptology. While I had never heard of him before, the flyer listed the following information: (1) Director of the Seila Pyramid Excavation, (2) Produced a National Geographic Channel Egypt Special, (3) author of numerous books on Egypt, (4) Currently working on pre and post-Christian burial grounds.
The Nat’l Geo reference really caught my attention. I don’t have cable, but I love that channel when I get a chance to watch. The fireside was excellent!!! (Note, I have been to 2 others about church history in the last month, that were quite disappointing.) He spoke for an hour, and then we had a closing prayer, and he allowed us to ask questions for another hour. The title of the fireside was “Joseph Smith and the Egyptian Connection.”
Mormon Heretic 